Demon's Wish
by Charmkeeper
Summary: Rei Hino feels a demonic aura on a walk one day, and despite how she feels about demons, she can't seem to find anything evil or scheming about this one...but is that really the case? Oneshot.


Author's Notes: I wrote this oneshot as a gift to Neominitails. It's nothing much, but I wanted to do it. I've known him on this site for quite a long time actually, and whenever we write together these always seem to be the two characters we take up, Rei and Kurama. So this was a perfect personal gift to give.

What I kind of tried to do here is make _Yu Yu Hakusho_ a little more shoujo and _Sailor Moon_ a little more shounen so that the two would sort of meet in the middle. I also tried, and I stress tried, to tap into that vein of comedic detective work both series' like to use, while still keeping Rei as serious as she tends to be.

I hope this can be enjoyed!

* * *

Walking. That was all she'd been doing. Walking. It was such a simple thing, an ordinary thing, on an ordinary day, but...enemies could show up at any time.

Rei felt the demonic aura before she saw him. It was so faint that it was really just _barely_ noticeable. It wasn't that it was weak, it was that it was a suppressed aura, disguised even, which was not an easy thing to do, especially when it was so skillfully done that it had almost slipped by her. It was skillfully done, but that just made it all the more suspicious.

Trying not to make it obvious that she was looking for someone, she turned her head back and forth, using her senses like a dowsing rod for the suppressed aura that she felt. It wasn't this way or that, but eventually her eyes settled on the person that she was almost positive it was.

At a glance, he looked like a normal young man, about her age, give or take a year or so. He wore a school uniform, one of the ones that she knew belonged a prestigious private school in the area. Yes. He looked like a normal person, until you gave thought to his hair. It was red. Not bright red, not such an unusual color that it made him stand out, like Usagi and many of the other senshi, but when he moved, his long hair moved with him, and there was a sheen of red, just enough for her to know.

There was a legend that, as a priestess, she knew quite well, a person born with red hair was possessed by a demon. She suspected that if he were not suppressing the aura that had nearly escaped her senses his hair would be a much brighter color, more like the blood he doubtlessly intended to spill...

But he was walking away.

Rei narrowed her eyes. She had to follow. If need be she would definitely call on Usagi and the others, but this was just one demon, one enemy. After such a long time of fighting such enemies, surely she could handle one by herself.

The demon in a human guise walked and walked, and Rei followed at a safe distance. He met with no one, stopped to speak with no one, and didn't get on a bus. He simply walked, his schoolbag tucked neatly under one arm. How long had he stayed in this guise, Rei wondered. Had the legend been correct? And he'd stayed in this body since birth, waiting for his powers to build up high enough to carry out his plots? Or was this probable possession ( for she could now feel a human side to this suppressed aura ) a more recent thing? Did it even matter?

After only about fifteen minutes of walking, the demon walked up a front walk, and into a house. A family that he planned on sucking the souls out of? Rei made her way around the side of the house, where she could see through the curtains of the kitchen window. Inside was a woman who looked perfectly plain, ordinary, but kindly, and Rei felt an anger grow in her chest. To target such an unsuspecting woman-! But after a moment the kindly woman turned away from the window, and the demon came into partial view. The woman greeted him smiling, and he greeted her back with loving gestures rather than coldness or even an attack. Rei found herself confused. Was he lulling the woman into a false sense of security? If so, it seemed like he'd certainly gone far enough already.

The pair of them moved out of view, and Rei waited for several long minutes before the woman came back to the window, apparently washing dishes. Rei checked the rest of the windows on the first floor, and, not finding the red haired demon anywhere, supposed he must have moved to the upper floor. She grimaced. For now he'd done nothing wrong, she supposed, but the next time she felt him, she knew that she would catch him in the act.

Rei did not feel the demon for nearly a week after the first incident, and had in fact all but forgotten about her little side trip. Of course, the thought of a demon running about unchained bothered her, but she hadn't heard about anything unusual, deaths, robberies...in fact, the neighborhood was as quiet as it ever was, and so she spared little thought to the demon until the time that she sense that subdued aura again.

It was the same area, the same time of day even, as the previous encounter. There was a difference, though, this time, the subtle demon was not all by his lonesome. This time he was accompanied by another young man. They looked to be about the same age, and even wore the same prestigious school uniform. The demon was silent, while the other male ( who seemed to secrete a slight aura of his own, though it was distinctly human ) spoke to him in a calm, even, yet somehow irritated tone. She kept far enough away that she could not make out the words they were saying, only the tone of the young man's voice.

After a couple of minutes, they stopped walking as the human male held his hand out for something, and Rei narrowed her eyes, slipping behind a nearby tree to watch. Could it be that this human male was not innocent? Did he know that the person standing next to him was evil? Was he even an accomplice of some sort?

She waited with baited breath as the demon dug through his bag and then handed over a single paper. The mars senshi strained her neck forward trying to see what it was, as the human examined it, adjusted his glasses, and then handed it back over with a statement that sounded rather defeated in its tone.

As the demon put the paper away again, the human said something, and then, for the first time, the demon said something in return, smiling, and then waving the other male off as he, quite simply, left. Rei pressed her back against the tree as he walked past her, not wanting him to realize that they had been watched. When she glanced back around the tree, she saw that the demon was staring right where she stood. For a moment, she felt like her heart had stopped, those eyes were ice cold, but then he smiled and waved again, and Rei breathed again, he'd been looking at his friend, not at her.

With a flick of his wrist, the demon flung a few loose red-black locks of hair back over his shoulder and continued on his way. Rei followed, only to find him going back to the very same house that she had followed him to before, with the same woman in the window, the same warm greeting, and then...nothing.

Rei huffed. What was he up to? For once, she found herself wishing that a demon wouldn't be so subtle, and would just come out and go through with...whatever diabolical plan he had, but she had no more time to waste on him today, she had somewhere to be.

She rushed from the demon's apparent home all the way to the game arcade that she and the other senshi often met at, only to find her princess up in her face nearly as soon as she stepped through the door. "Look! Look! Here she is! Rei-chan! You're late!"

As Usagi began to prattle on about her never being late, and how she always scolded Usagi for being late, and wondering why she was late, Rei sighed. Why couldn't Usagi see that everything she did was for the odango haired girl? If she was late for once in her life, it should be obvious that she had been doing something to ensure Usagi's safety as well as the safety of the rest of their team...but no, as much as she inwardly loved and cared for her princess, she remained too childish to realize something that Rei found to be perfectly obvious.

Rei settled herself down for the meeting, putting on a face that indicated that she was listening more intently than she really was. They had this meeting practically every week. There hadn't been an enemy in their midst for a while, but Ami found (and Rei agreed) that it was important for them to gather and go over things, so that they didn't forget or lose their edge. Usually, no matter how much of it was "the same as always", Rei listened, but today her mind was on the enemy that she was not planning on telling her friends and comrades about. The demon had not shown his hand yet, so Rei did not want to trouble them, especially not over something that she could probably take care of all on her own. She would wait and see how it all began to unfold before she even contemplated worrying the others with the red haired demon.

Unlike the space of time between the first two times she'd sensed him, Rei felt the now familiar aura of the demon the very next day. If that weren't troubling enough, it wasn't in the crossing full of people that she sensed him, but in the park, as she was making her way through it to get to the temple. The most troubling thing was the strength of the aura. The subdued aura was gone, replaced by one of a strength that she had not grasped at, and he was much more powerful than she had thought.

In her heart, she knew that it was a lure, that he was trying to make her, or some other poor soul, come to him, and she knew that she should turn away, to wait for another day, yet somehow, she found that her feet took her straight to him, where he sat on a park bench, a book in his hand. He even looked different, just like his aura, Rei found herself thinking _'Was his hair always that bright?' _It seemed much redder than she remembered, or perhaps that was just the way that his hair lay against the clothes that were not his school uniform, but instead were young, yet gave away that he was more mature than others his age...and of a slightly more well to do status than most.

For a few moments he seemed to ignore Rei, then, gently, he put a bookmark between his pages, and the book was shut with slight snap. "Hino-san," he said, smiling gently against the shiver that ran up Rei's spine. _'He knows my name!' _"You're late." Despite the shock of his knowledge, the tone of his voice was somehow irksome, he spoke as though they had been planning this meeting for weeks, he spoke as though he knew her. She kept her face steeled though, and she suspected that the gentle smile on his own lips were nothing but a steeled expression of his own. Unstoppable force, meet immovable object.

"Sit," the demon ventured at last, nodding his head to the space next to him on the bench. "I would like for us to talk."

"And why should I talk to you? I know what you are."

"I know. Why else would you follow me around as though I am some sort of a bomb? You think that gives you the advantage, but the truth is that I also know who you are," he stood to his feet, and leaned forward just enough to make Rei uncomfortable before he whispered, "Mars-san."

He leaned back a little bit, the smile on his face completely gone as he let that sink in. It made Rei want to run away. He knew. He knew! "How could you possibly know?" For once it did not occur to her to deny it, that look on his face left no room for question. He was positive, and he was right, it took away every advantage she had thought she'd had.

"It make it my business to know these things. Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask, the other senshi...I know who they all are. It's not any fault on your part, it's just that it was me, and I wanted to know." The demon sat down again, "I just want to talk, please, sit." He gestured again to the spot next to him on the bench, and this time, feeling like she didn't have much of a choice, Rei sat down.

"So what should I call you?" Even though he was a man and a demon, both things that she generally despised, neither of these things were things she could call him aloud, and not get suspicious looks about.

"My human name is Minamino Shuichi, you can call me that," Minamino nodded his head gently. "I brought tea, you should have some, it will calm your nerves." Seemingly out of nowhere, a sealed can of tea was offered to her, and Rei took it, though she did not open it. Even though it was sealed...a demon of his apparent power could have easily tampered with it.

"Why have you lured me here?"

Any jovial aspect of his personality disappeared, and Rei knew that she was looking at his true personality, a serious, powerful demon that she very well knew could attack at any time. "I don't like being followed, and believe it or not, you are not as discreet as you might think you are. Even my mother has noticed some movement outside her kitchen window."

"Your mother?" Did he mean the woman in the house? The one he'd probably bewitched?

"Yes," he said simply, "My mother." He did not elaborate, and instead chose to continue on. "I understand the concerns you probably have, both as a priestess and for the future I know you protect, and I will not deny that I am dangerous when I want to be, and I will not deny that I, being what I am, have no place in your Silver Millennium." For the third time Rei felt a shiver run down her spine. He knew about that too, their future, a future which he knew he had no place in. Why wouldn't he want to destroy it? Why wouldn't he want to bring down something that would mess with his own life, his own plans? "But I will tell you with complete honesty that I pose no threat to you, your princess, or your future."

"Why?" It was the only word that made sense to speak. He gave away so much, yet it felt like so little. Why should she believe him? He was a demon, he was a _man._ There was nothing trustworthy about him.

Minamino Shuichi smiled at her, it was the kind of smile that foxes seemed to have in all the pictures and stories, sly, scheming. "I will tell you something I do not tell many people. Not long ago, I had a wish, I was already living this life at the time, this human life. I had decided not to do much with my demonic powers, until that wish came to light, but for that wish, I lied, stole, cheated, and acted cowardly. I had it granted, this wish of mine, or so I thought." The redhead leaned back on the bench, his gaze up at the sky, the sly smile gone with a real one, a genuinely pleased one, sitting in its place. "I thought the item I stole granted my wish, but it didn't. It was only like a respirator, breathing life into my wish until it could breathe on its own."

Minamino turned his gaze back toward Rei, the smile gone again, his face serious, but not dangerous, not like it had been when he'd realized that he knew that she was Sailor Mars. "Your Silver Millennium is the truest answer that my wish could have ever been given, and I would never raise my hand against it."

He held her gaze for what felt like an hour. Rei kept on thinking that she couldn't possibly believe him. A demon would say whatever it took to get what they wanted...yet, the longer she held his gaze the more that she found that she believed him. She couldn't say what it was, but there was something in his eyes that made him seem honest, even with the knowledge of what he was. He would not touch her princess, he would not attack her friends, he would not harm her. He wanted the future that he could not be a part of. She couldn't understand why, but he did.

There must have been some sort of a tell in her face, because at last, the redhead looked away from her, and stood to his feet. "I'm glad we've reached an understanding," he said, giving the slightest of bows before he readjusted the jacket that was draped over his shoulders. "Protect that future for me, will you? I'm counting on you, Hino-san."

With the can of tea still in her hands, Rei watched Minamino Shuichi walk away. It was only when he was completely gone from both her sight and her sense that she realized there was a question that burned at her. What could possibly be the demon's wish?


End file.
